Young architect Jorge Fontan is currently developing two original concept designs for attainable green architecture projects; one residential, the other mixed-use. The residential property has been devised for location on Barnes Avenue in The Bronx, New York and is spread over six storeys with a permanent daycare facility on the ground floor. A third of the 21 private units have setbacks for terraces with green spaces.
The initiative for these new homes is to provide each member of the residential block with their own green space in the city to grow vegetables and plants, maintained with water from greywater recycling. All terraces will feature solar sun screens on windows and doorways. The façade of the Barnes Avenue complex is composed of two colours of fibre cement board in order to break down the scale and signify a distinctive identity in an urban landscape of red brick townhouses and surrounding buildings in The Bronx.
Poto Vinculum is another of Jorge Fontan’s projects in design development. The building is a series of towers merged through bridging spaces, with all upward-facing surfaces utilised as vertical green parks for use by the occupants. Fontan views the concept as ‘a new typology for large scale building projects’ as all spaces are merged through a system of public and private interconnections.
Vinculum is a mathematical term for union or unity which forms the essence of the design, i.e. the connection of various building sections by horizontal public spaces. This project was originally conceived for an architecture competition for new prototypes in large scale developments.
